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is a county in southeastern Norway, bordering Akershus and southwestern Sweden (Västra Götaland County and Värmland), while Buskerud and Vestfold is on the other side of the bay. The county administration is in Sarpsborg and Fredrikstad is the biggest city.
Østfold is located between the Oslo Fjord and Sweden. It is a hilly landscape with a lot of woodland. It's also a typical low-land district; the highest mountain, Slavasshøgda is only 336 metres high. The towns Askim, Fredrikstad, Moss, Mysen, Halden, and Sarpsborg are located here, making Østfold the county of Norway with most towns. The rivers Glomma and Tistedalselva run through the district.
Østfold is among the nation's oldest inhabited regions, with petroglyphs (rock drawings) and mounds throughout the area. Many manufacturing communities are situated here. Moss and Fredrikstad have shipyards. Granite mines are situated in Østfold, granite stone from these was used by Gustav Vigeland.
The county slogan: "The heartland of Scandinavia". The local dialect is characterized by the geographical proximity to Sweden. The dialect has a low status elsewhere in the coutry. Many people reckon it sounds rather stupid, and feels that it gives signals of being a dialect spoken by simple, low range people [1]. This is why increasingly more people are turning away from the original dialect to a more neutal form [2].
The symbol of Østfold represents nature and the concept of the life-giving sun. The middle ray of light represents warmth, and the two beams on either side symbolize light.

Contents

History

The name

Coat-of-arms

Municipalities

External links

History

In the Viking Age, the area was part of Vingulmark, which in turn was part of Viken and included Båhuslen. It was partly under Swedish rule until the time of Harald Fairhair.
Later, when Norway was under Danish rule, the Danish king divided the area into many baronies. (The barony of ''Heggen og Frøland'', consisting of the municipalities Askim, Eidsberg and Trøgstad, originally belonged to Akershus - but it was transferred to Østfold in 1768.)
To this day, in contrary to many other traditional districts of Norway, Østfold is culturally not a unity, but instead a mosaic of areas around the various cities and towns.

The name

The old name of the Oslofjord was ''Fold'', and the meaning of ''Østfold'' is 'the region 'east' for the Fold'. The name is first recorded in 1543, in the Middle Ages the name of the county was ''Borgarsysla'' 'the county/sýsla of the city Borg (now Sarpsborg)'.
Later (under Danish rule) the county was called ''Smaalenenes Amt'' 'the amt consisting of small len'.

Coat-of-arms

The coat of arms is from modern times (1958). The lines represent sunrays at sunrise in the east. (See above under the name.) They also represent the worship of the Sun in the Bronze Age (depicted in several rock carvings found in the county).

Municipalities

# Aremark# Askim# Eidsberg# Fredrikstad# Halden# Hobøl# Hvaler# Marker# Moss# Rakkestad# Rygge# Rømskog# Råde# Sarpsborg# Skiptvet# Spydeberg# Trøgstad# Våler

Municipalities of Østfold

External links

★ Østfold fylke website (in Norwegian)

★ Statistics and basic interpretation regarding Østfold (in Norwegian)

★ Excavation of longhouse from the Roman Iron Age